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Saturday, 22 March 2014

#CountryKids 3 Castles 1 Day!

As part of Team Honk last weekend we went to 3 castles in 1 day which made for a fun Country Kids experience. First up Kendal Castle which is our local castle. This involves a bit of a hike from town but its very accessible to us:

Up Parr St to Kendal Castle

It was very cold on the top but it didn't prevent my kids from playing hide and seek in the ruins and flashing their Sports Relief goodies:

Sports Relief at Kendal Castle

We had a gentle if slippy run down the hill from Kendal castle before being transported through the hills and lovely Cumbrian countryside to Brough Castle. There isn't much of the castle left as apparently it was accidentally burned down in 1521 at a party! What the kids liked was the Ice Cream Parlour the local farmer has opened at the entrance to the castle.. Yummy ice cream! Then on to the castle itself which has some friendly sheep living on the grounds:

Brough Castle sheep

Because of the fire there isn't much at the castle but there is room for even more hide and seek (not easy in a bright red Sport Relief onesie):

Brough Castle cobblestones

There were also plenty of places to scare mum by finding holes in the walls:

Brough Castle walls

There isn't a lot of castle left but you can begin to guess what a lovely place it once was:

Ruins of Brough Castle

We certainly enjoyed exploring what was left:

Enjoying Brough Castle

I would love to have seen the castle with more of it intact:

Next up was Barnard Castle which has a great playground next to the castle:

Playground at Barnard Castle

Then into the castle itself which was built by a man called Bernard. There is more to this than Brough so we had to use our English Heritage membership to go in and explore:

Just a shame the wind was so strong and cold we didn't want to hang around! We ended our day out with a run to the Bowes Museum which has an amazing view from the entrance:

Wow what a great idea for Team Honk and some wonderful Castles too. The ruins reminds me of Tintagel here, always a disappointment to the kids as there is not actually much left to see. I love the look of the space and funny hidey holes you found and hope you get to go to each again on a more relaxed trip with a picnic. Love the outfits too. Well done.